There’s A LOT going on this weekend. On Saturday alone, there’s stop three of the IAAF World Indoor Tour in Karlsruhe, Germany, the Armory Track Invitational in New York, the Camel City Elite in North Carolina and the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Oregon. And that’s just the Northern Hemisphere action. There’s also the first-ever Usain Bolt-backed Nitro Athletics meet in Melbourne and on Sunday there’s some football game in Houston. It’s a lot to keep track of, but that’s what we’re here for.

We’ve already previewed the elite races at USA XC (men here, women here), and they’ll be held in the late afternoon East Coast time (4:30 women, 5:20 men), which is conveniently after all the track meets wrap up. Unfortunately, viewers will have to choose between watching the meet at the Armory and USA XC. That’s because the elite events at the Armory will not be shown on TV live or even streamed live online; rather they’ll be shown on tape delay on NBC Sports Network from 4:30 p.m. ET to 6:30 p.m. ET — the same time as the senior men’s and women’s races at USA XC. Brilliant.

We break down the best races of the weekend below in chronological order as it would give you a headache to try to figure out a way to follow the action any other way. We suggest you enjoy Saturday’s action a la carte – a few races from each meet.

Paul Chelimo, Leo Manzano, Robby Andrews, Drew Hunter, Melissa Bishop and Ajee Wilson are among the names competing on the track in the United States. However, our race of the day is in Germany where Hellen Obiri and Laura Muir will square off over 3000 meters in Karlsruhe, where Elijah Manangoi, David Torrence and Erik Sowinski are all also in action.

This one pits 2012 Olympic 400 bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad & Tobago against high school phenom Tyrese Cooper. If you haven’t heard of Cooper, a sophomore from Miami, you will soon. On January 13, he broke the high school national record by running 33.03 for 300 meters and one day later ran a U.S. HS leader of 1:01.88 for 500 meters. For context, last year’s high school phenom, Noah Lyles (who wound up fourth in the Olympic Trials 200) ran 33.18 in 2016. Even though Cooper is old for his grade (he turns 17 next month), he’s still almost two years younger than Lyles was last year. This kid is special.

1:28 pm ET – Karlsruhe, men’s 1500

NAT

Athlete

DOB

YOB

PB_outdoor

PB_indoor

SB_Season_Best

GER

Benitz, Timo

24-Dez-91

1991

3:34,94

– – –

– – –

KEN

Birgen, Bethwel

06-Aug-88

1988

3:30,77

3:34,62

3:37,81

ESP

Castillo, Maury Surel

19-Okt-84

1984

3:35,03

3:43,06

– – –

KEN

Kibet, Vincent

06-Mai-91

1991

3:31,96

3:34,91

– – –

KEN

Kiplagat, Silas

20-Aug-89

1989

3:27,64

3:35,26

3:40,74

KEN

Kivuva, Jackson Mumbwa

11-Aug-89

1989

3:41,63

3:45,08

– – –

GBR

Lancashire, Thomas Benjamin (Tom)

02-Jul-85

1985

3:33,96

3:46,75

– – –

KEN

Manangoi, Elijah Motonei

05-Jan-93

1993

3:29,77

3:37,62

3:37,62

FRA

Selmouni, Sofiane

22-Sep-89

1989

3:40,01

3:41,40

3:41,40

GER

Sperlich, Martin

28-Aug-91

1991

3:37,18

3:45,01

3:45,01

PER

Torrence, David

26-Nov-85

1985

3:33,23

3:41,70

– – –

The World Indoor Tour series title in the men’s 1500 is worth $20,000 and a bye into World Indoors next year, so these guys definitely have some motivation. 2015 World Champs silver medallist Elijah Manangoi of Kenya is currently tied with Matthew Centrowitz for the series lead, but considering Centro isn’t running any more World Indoor Tour races (that we know of), Manangoi is in the driver’s seat thanks to his world-leading 3:37.62 victory in Dusseldorf on Wednesday. We expect Manangoi, who had to withdraw after the first round of the Olympics last year due to injury, to get the win again on Saturday, but he was pushed by Bethwell Birgen in Dusseldorf (second, 3:37.81), so watch out for him here as well.

19-year-old pro Drew Hunterlooked good in his season opener two weeks ago, running 3:58.92 to win the mile at the New Balance Games on this same track. But he’ll face a sterner test on Saturday in the 3,000. The good news is that Hunter is well-suited for the 3,000 as he’s got a nice mix of speed and strength; his PR is 7:59 from last year, and it should be pointed out that that time came on a flat track. Hunter will likely have to do better than 7:59 if he is to win this race. Wisconsin junior Morgan McDonald has run 7:52 and is coming off his best season yet, placing seventh at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November. He’ll be going for an NCAA qualifier and the win. Colorado alum Morgan Pearson has also been in good form recently, winning the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and taking third at Club Cross in December. Olympic Trials 1500 finalist Daniel Winn could be in contention if it comes down to a kick, but he hasn’t run a 3k since 2014. Plus Paralympic 1500 champion Mikey Brannigan is in the field in his 2017 opener.

This is the race of the day. You’ve got Olympic 5k silver medallist Hellen Obiri, who has been murdering the competition this year and is coming off an 8:39 world leader in Boston, vs. Brit Laura Muir, who ran a British record of 14:49 for 5,000 meters back on January 4. Since then, Muir has been training in South Africa but she’s back in Europe now and ready to roll. Obiri is very strong right now, as shown by her destruction of Sifan Hassan and Shannon Rowbury over the final 400 meters in Boston last week, but will she be able to drop Muir as she did those two women? A slow early pace last week doomed any chance Obiri had at a fast time, but she closed her final 1600 in 4:31 and has a shot to go a lot faster in Karlsruhe.

Worth noting: the Kenyan national record (held by Obiri) is 8:29.99, while the British national record is 8:31.50, set by Jo Pavey back in 2007.

There are several athletes to watch in this one. 22-year-old American Ajee Wilson is the headliner, as she’s coming off a 1:25.23 win at this same distance two weeks ago, a time that ranks #2 ever by an American indoors. She’s still a ways off Alysia Montano‘s American record (1:23.59) but Wilson could dip into the 1:24s on Saturday. Charlene Lipsey has also been running well in 2017 after joining Wilson’s training group under coach Derek Thompson. So far, she’s set indoor PRs in the 800 (2:02.01) and mile (4:31.35) and given that she hasn’t run the 600 since high school, her 1:29.85 PR is likely to tumble here. Olympic 800 finalist Lynsey Sharp, who lost to Lipsey in Boston last weekend, is also entered, as is high schooler Sammy Watson, who set the U.S. high school record of 1:28.67 on January 21. Watson won that race by over nine seconds; with women to chase in New York, she could go even faster.

2:11 pm ET – Karlsruhe, women’s 800

NAT

Athlete

DOB

YOB

PB_outdoor

PB_indoor

SB_Season_Best

BLR

Arzamasova, Marina

17-Dez-87

1987

1:57,54

2:00,79

2:03,10

SUI

Büchel, Selina

26-Jul-91

1991

1:57,95

2:00,93

2:02,52

GER

Hering, Christina

09-Okt-94

1994

1:59,54

2:00,93

2:03,48

POL

Jozwik, Joanna

30-Jan-91

1991

1:57,37

2:00,01

2:00,91

UKR

Lebid, Anastasiya

30-Okt-93

1993

2:05,77

2:07,19

2:07,19

GBR

Oskan-Clarke, Shelayna

20-Jan-90

1990

1:58,86

2:02,66

2:03,63

DEN

Troest, Stina

17-Jan-94

1994

2:04,29

2:02,81

2:04,28

BEN

Yarigo, Noélie

26-Dez-85

1985

1:59,12

2:02,01

2:09,71

Poland’s Joanna Jozwik clocked a world leader of 2:00.91 in Dusseldorf on Wednesday and will look to take another step toward the series title. 2015 world champ Marina Arzamasova (fifth in Boston, fourth in Dusseldorf) is entered, as is last year’s British outdoor champ Shelayna Oskan-Clarke.

In terms of talent, Scot Andrew Butchart is the top guy in this race — he was sixth in the Olympic 5k last year and ran 7:42 in Boston last weekend for 3k — but he hasn’t run a mile in almost four years. That makes this a fairly wide open race, with Olympic Trials finalist Eric Avila, Ford Palmer (fifth at USAs in 2014) and two-time NCAA champ Mac Fleet the main contenders.

2:35 pm ET – Camel City Elite, men’s 3000

Chelimo will look to follow up his win in Boston with another in North Carolina

Put an Olympic silver medallist against a field of mostly college kids and you’re only going to get one outcome. Actually, we’ll reel our confidence in just a bit as Brit Lee Emanuel actually beat Paul Chelimo at this very distance at World Indoors last year. But after Chelimo, who’s returning to his old college stomping grounds in North Carolina, ran a world-leading 7:42 3k last week to take down a stacked field in Boston, we expect him to get the win here.

The intrigue here is that Main Street Elite, the Jason Vigilante-coached quartet of Robby Andrews, Peter Callahan, Anthony Kostelac and Russell Dinkins, will be going for the world record of 7:13.11. That averages out to 1:48.28, which is not a gimme with this group. Andrews (1:44.71 pb, 2:21 1k win last week in Boston), obviously, is world-class but Callahan (1:48.66 pb), Kostelac (1:47.28 pb) and Dinkins (1:47.47 pb) will all need to deliver huge performances if they are to have a shot at the record.

Remember, when the current world record was set three years ago in Boston, the record-setting team (Duane Solomon, David Torrence, Erik Sowinski, Richard Jones) was more talented than this Main Street Elite squad and they had competition in the form of NY*NY Track Club, who pushed them all the way to the line (fun fact: Andrews was on that NJ*NY squad, which finished just .11 behind in second). NJ*NY TC does have a squad entered here (likely Chris Giesting, Joe McAsey, Goaner Deng and Brian Gagnon) but it’s not as strong as the 2014 version (Kyle Merber, Gagnon, Andrews and Mike Rutt).

This race originally was intended to be a battle of all of the top US post-collegiate clubs but not everyone got on board.

In the end, we don’t think the record goes down. Even coach Vigilante told us that he’s not sure a WR is “in the cards” as a world record is “special” and a relay world record almost always requires great competition.

Olympic fourth placer Melissa Bishop should cruise to the victory here. The only question is whether she takes down her meet record from last year (2:02.10) in her 2017 opener. Bishop is coming off a warm-weather training stint in Florida and feels good about her fitness, so we’ll say she does it. If not, we still expect her to get the win in this rustbuster before she heads to Europe for races in Ireland and Birmingham.

Cory McGee, who represented the U.S. at World Indoors last year in the 1500, is the best bet for the win here and she appears to be fit after running an indoor PR of 2:02.20 in the 800 last weekend and coming back the next day to split 4:31 on the anchor of a DMR. Stephanie Garcia (8:55 3k in Boston) and Rachel Schneider (fifth at USA outdoors in 2015) could also be factors here.

This should be a good one. Leo Manzano will be coming down from a training camp in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he told LetsRun.com that he’s been “hitting it hard.” Manzano feels confident that he is in good shape for Saturday’s race, and while you never know quite what you’re going to get from Manzano (especially in a season opener), we like his chances here. He won’t be able to relax, however, as Canadian Olympic finalist Nate Brannen also looks to be fit coming off a 7:47 3k season opener in Seattle. Chelimo, as well, cannot be discounted, though he’ll be doubling back from the 3k, which starts 75 minutes earlier.

5:00 am ET (tehnically this should have been listed first but few of our visitors will be up to watch it) – Usain Bolt’s Big Idea: Nitro Athletics

Usain Bolt will start his 2017 season Down Under on Saturday at the inaugural Nitro Athletics meet in Melbourne. While purists may scoff at the Nitro Athletics meet, we’re curious to see how the nontraditional meet goes. What do we mean about nontraditional? Check out the list of events:

Is this meet going to “save track and field”? Probably not. But we’re interested to see javelin throwers aim at targets and the elimination mile, where whoever is in last is pulled from the race after each of the first three laps.

This is a team competition, contested over three nights (Saturday, February 4; Thursday, February 9; and Saturday, February 11), and though we don’t know exactly who will be involved in every event, there are some big-name stars committed. Bolt’s team includes Asafa Powell, Olympic 400 hurdles champ Kerron Clement, former Arkansas star Jarrion Lawson, 2008 Olympic 100 hurdles champ Dawn Harper-Nelson and Jenna Prandini, while Australia (Ryan Gregson, Genevieve LaCaze, Fabrice Lapierre), England, Japan, China and New Zealand will all have teams too.

The problem for U.S. fans is that, as far as we can tell, there’s no U.S. stream. And even if there was, because the event is taking place at 7:00 p.m. local time on Saturday night, that means that it would be on at 3:00 a.m. U.S. time on Saturday morning. If you’re in Australia, you can watch it on Channel Seven (full broadcast info here).